Mary Stuart (born Mary Stuart Houchins; July 4, 1926 – February 28, 2002) was an American actress, guitarist, singer, and songwriter.
A former silver screen starlet, she was best known for her starring role as Joanne on the CBS/NBC soap opera Search for Tomorrow, which she played for 35 years without interruption (1951–86).
After her divorce from her first husband, with whom she raised two children, she began a side career as a guitarist and a singer-songwriter, first singing on Search for Tomorrow and then releasing her own album in 1973.
At the time of her death, she had played the role of Meta Bauer on the CBS soap opera Guiding Light for six years. For her work in daytime drama, she was given the Lifetime Achievement Daytime Emmy.
Stuart was born Mary Stuart Houchins in Miami, Florida, on July 4, 1926, to Guy M. and Mary (née Stuart) Houchins. She grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Stuart started performing in her youth, and at the age of 9 she was selected by Count Basie Orchestra to perform with them at two of their shows. Her eventual stage name was her mother's maiden name.
Stuart graduated from Tulsa Central High School and attended the University of Tulsa, where she majored in speech and drama, before embarking on her professional career. She was a member of Delta Delta sorority at the university. She worked briefly for the Tulsa Tribune newspaper and worked with the Tulsa Little Theater.
She left home at age 17 for New York City. Upon arriving in New York she worked as a model and nightclub photographer at the Roosevelt Hotel.
While working at the hotel, Stuart met film producer Joe Pasternak. After a screen test, Pasternak told Stuart "you can't sing, you can't walk, but there is something that you have. Let's figure out what it is." She signed a seven-year contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1946.
Television Career and Search for Tomorrow
CBS offered Stuart a role in their new soap opera, The First Hundred Years.
In 1951, Stuart was cast as housewife Joanne Gardner in Search for Tomorrow. Stuart was the first actress to have her real life pregnancy written into the show, and was filmed at the hospital after giving birth to her son in 1956.
In 1953 she was named Favorite Daytime TV Serial Actress by Radio-TV Mirror magazine for her role in Search for Tomorrow.
For her performance, Stuart was the first soap opera actress to be nominated for an Emmy in 1962, before the creation of the Daytime Emmy Awards, and was nominated at the 1st Daytime Emmy Awards in 1974, but lost to Elizabeth Hubbard. Stuart later received two additional nominations at the Daytime Emmys for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series in 1976 and 1977. In 1985, she earned a Lifetime Achievement Emmy from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.
Search for Tomorrow was initially cancelled in 1982 by CBS, and was picked up by NBC, until it was canceled again in 1986 due to poor ratings and low viewership.
At the time of its second cancellation, Search for Tomorrow ran for thirty-five years. At the time of its final cancelation it was the longest-running soap opera on television. Stuart was the only cast member to last the entire duration of the show.
After her screentest with Joe Pasternak, Stuart began working in Hollywood. Her roles were usually small, but sometimes with leading actors of the time, including Ronald Reagan in The Girl from Jones Beach, Errol Flynn in Adventures of Don Juan, Clark Gable in The Hucksters, Esther Williams in This Time for Keeps and Henry Fonda and Lucille Ball in The Big Street.
Stuart said about her work in films, "When the elevator doors opened and a girl said, 'Going up,' that was me. In the scenes where the secretary said, 'Mr. Smith will see you now,' that was me." She also had roles in B Western films. After four years in Hollywood, she returned to New York City.
In 1956, Stuart recorded "Joanne Sings," an album of songs for children from the perspective of her Search for Tomorrow character. Stuart and Percy Faith collaborated on the album.